Chapter 167
Chapter 167
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 167
Chapter Title: How to Survive as the Second Son of a Magical Noble Family
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Now I understand why it had to be me.
I reached one conclusion, and felt my heart, which had barely been beating, start to pick up speed.
The rumors my brother had spread out had rippled through in this form.
As I'd guessed, Nikolaus wasn't the target.
Pleroma was trying to get Lucas Ascanien into their hands.
'...They're gathering tools to use against Nikolaus.'
And parish performance competitions were tangled up in it too.
The only reason they'd turned the entire country into an experimental ground for the suitable ones and lured me in amid the abundance of manpower was that one thing.
[Won't the Brandenburg Archdiocese protest? This is still Berlin, and this student attends the Berlin school.]
[What do we have to worry about when we couldn't even properly support a single establishment in our jurisdiction and ended up taking hits like this? And...]
The bishop gestured with his hand.
The person next to him, on closer look, wore purple choir trimming. Not a bishop—a monsignor.
Even so, what business did a monsignor have in a denomination that was barely a decade old?
Unlike Roman Catholicism, with its solid roots, there seemed to be a strict hierarchy between bishops and monsignors among them. That much was clear from their speech.
[They cling ironclad to whatever Lucas Ascanien claims. Adrian Ascanien the vice minister has been stirring things up so much we haven't been able to approach to this day—it's not that we didn't try. Coming out that naively is just foolish.]
“......”
[The rumor about drinking blood might be nonsense, but the aptitude itself is excellent. If he'd joined ten years ago, he might be an archbishop by now.]
[And now...?]
Silence stretched on.
After a long moment, the bishop chuckled as he spoke.
[Are you just going to leave this mage to become that?]
[......]
[No matter how talented, without the right timing and luck, it's over. Raise him as Freiburg's bell. Not the master.]
Freiburg.
I repeated the name several times to commit it to memory.
The Catholic diocese encompassing the Grand Duchy of Baden. Pleroma seemed to use the same name.
And Baden was the country first used as a testing ground for the contamination drugs. It was also ruled by the Cheringen family.
The monsignor stayed silent for a long stretch before finally speaking.
[I understand. Will you bless him here? He'll resist, so we should hurry with the baptism at least.]
[Hah, a blessing in a place like this? Saying that makes me feel like one of the Magi at the manger—novel indeed.]
At those words, the monsignor gaped, glanced around, then rattled off like a machine gun.
[Bishop, using such a simile in a place where hopeless souls like those in Primrose Pass wander is a grave blasphemy.]
[You're too serious. If you have time to nitpick that, go downstairs and check if anyone helped this student escape. It'll save us time on cleanup too.]
[...My apologies. But I sent Father Hans to the first floor.]
“......”
I'd momentarily forgotten that they believed in that god too.
I wondered if Narke heard this conversation whether he'd collapse clutching his neck or just let out a hollow laugh. They were heretics officially recognized by this world's Holy See, after all—no reason to listen closely.
And...
'Good thing I erased their memories earlier.'
The former humans I'd met on the first floor. It was time they'd vanish anyway once the clock reset, and at most only two or three hours had passed since, but in a place where justice bows to injustice, I didn't want even a moment's reproach.
Everyone thinks they don't want to live in a hellhole like this, but there's a world of difference between a simple wish and actively aiding an escape.
Most people see the one or two who actually enact reform as dangerous elements who could shatter their current familiarity.
The bishop stared at the monsignor with a face demanding if he planned to keep talking back, and the monsignor cleared his throat.
[Ahem... Then we'll move him to Freiburg quickly.]
[No. Baptize him here.]
[Pardon? Didn't you just say no blessings in a place like this?]
[Given our denomination's nature, where and from whom one receives baptism and blessing matters greatly. Doesn't it?]
The monsignor hesitated before answering.
[It does.]
[He'll be asked hundreds of times in the future where he was baptized. Shouldn't we leave one flaw?]
[That only means under which diocese, not in which building... no, right?]
[You don't get it. Even if others know nothing, we must make a part he's not proud of himself.]
He crooked a finger.
[To keep him from becoming king, crush the bud. Bring him.]
[......]
The bishop drew his sword.
The instant I saw it, his face loomed right in front of mine.
[You're awake, right on time.]
Kwang—!
The bishop grabbed my nape and slammed me to the floor.
Before I could think how he'd noticed, I felt a needle jab into my arm.
Even after confirming the drug had already taken effect on me, the reason for injecting more was obvious.
'This drug alone means no need to block mana—handy.'
They might not know, but it was handy only for me. For me.
Because I'd chewed earlier, I bit my ragged tongue. I had to stop my mind from going entirely white. Lose focus, and it was over.
Zzzip—
Something long sliced from my left palm up to my wrist. Then it started drawing a horizontal line across the palm.
My skin felt cool now, like it was numb.
—This final cup, I offer my soul in blessed worship for the dawn!
I couldn't see it face-down, but some liquid—holy water, probably—poured over the fresh cut.
'...Time to wrap this up.'
I erased the pain from my head. No time for whining.
One last check.
I'd finally become aware of the artifact alert chiming endlessly in my ear.
I recalled who I'd last communicated with and pressed the artifact.
[...Got it? Lucas!]
“Leo.”
[I guess I did make it a bit strong.]
The bishop sneered.
He must think I'm hearing things. Calling out someone else's name out of nowhere would make anyone think that.
[Where are you?! You're not even in your room...!]
Leo kept raising his voice, but sensory overload cut off the rest.
But this was enough.
'So, he checked my room.'
The class rep coming and going openly from my room would draw suspicion, so he'd definitely warped in.
Got it.
That warp spell was one-use. And cleaned up without a trace of residual mana.
Some skilled operator had set it up.
“See you later.”
I said goodbye to Leo and recovered the mana I'd shifted to my ear.
I like it.
Yeah, they'd have to move carefully too.
That way, it'll be satisfying to track them down and blow them up.
Anyway...
Now my vision was starting to flicker too. Black, then white, over and over.
—I can finally say this now.
To the bishop's faint voice, I slowly closed and opened my eyes. My mouth worked, but no sound came out.
'Therefore, son of man.'
I rolled the words around in my mouth.
Couldn't transmit the incantation to their ears, but strength gathered in my fingertips.
The drug spreading through my body felt like it was fading, so I murmured without closing my eyes.
—Though you dwell with thorns and briers and sit among scorpions.
“What...”
It worked. Power returned with each completed formula. I twisted my body and stomped the floor.
Kwaaang—!
“…?!”
“Bishop!”
My ears rang like I'd plunged into water. Vitriol pierced through the mana light and rushed at me.
The vitriol I couldn't block in time strangled my neck from behind. I knew from past experience that without a sword, its viscosity made it hard to cut away.
'Then do it differently.'
I snapped my fingers, and the monsignor's spot turned red.
“…?!”
He tried to move, but too late. Flames erupted from the floor.
Kwaaaang—!
“Guhk...!”
—Fear them not. Though they are rebels, do not fear their words or be terrified at their faces!
I thrust out my hand and continued.
My vision was fully back now.
A purification formula cast on the caster themselves, not the target.
The first time my brother sent the steward, I hadn't learned self-purification yet, so I couldn't cleanse myself.
I hadn't let that experience slide.
The fatal drawback was the extra stamina spent on retries, consumed here. So I had to use it now.
'Good.'
As the drug fully washed away, qualms about manners toward elders and ethics against striking humans—even corpses—flashed through my mind.
But sadly, I lacked the son of man's patience, so I couldn't hold back.
I grabbed the bishop's collar and flipped him over.
Kwang! Ppak—!
His face whipped around with each punch I threw. I simply threw up a curtain to block the incoming vitriol and looked down at his face.
Even without doing anything, fear and doubt crossed his features.
—But in the end, the Lord will sink with the twilight!
—Enter through the narrow gate.
My low chant, with a smile, smothered his struggles.
The bishop's pupils clouded over, then snapped back to normal size. Astonishment crossed his face.
He must be shocked that it worked even briefly.
'Ainsidel held out till the end too. This guy's much weaker than Ainsidel, but... bishops don't go down to a single incantation.'
Kwang! Chaenggrang—!
The curtain shattered from another bishop's vitriol.
As I wiped the blood trickling down my cheek and repaired the curtain, the bishop beneath me bellowed.
“Andreas! Back to the diocese!”
“What?! Returning after failing to handle one student...!”
“Idiot! —In the beginning was the Deed!”
Hm. Wise choice.
I quickly met their eyes one by one to open status windows. As I gripped the collar again, they vanished before me.
'The monsignor'll have to lose that title.'
The bishop's judgment was spot-on.
It wasn't that their skills fell short.
But having seen me use divine power, they couldn't stay.
He was about to spill every precious diocese secret from his own mouth.
'What to do.'
Even so, the next timeline would favor me more.
When we meet again, we'll be acquaintances, but to them, I'll be a stranger.
With Pleroma's school ties confirmed in this situation, I couldn't just leave them be.
“Mm.”
I slowly put strength into my legs.
Time to go back. I had no strength left to stay here either.
I'd scraped up everything I could learn.
I staggered to my feet and opened my mouth in satisfaction.
“Retry.”
* * *
Ddulkung—
“…!”
I jolted awake to the carriage's jolt.
A pitch-black mana mask covered my face.
I was back.
Just leaving the police station, heading back to the dorm.
A hollow laugh escaped me. The hand and arm I'd just been wounded on were whole again, as if nothing had happened.
Every trace of what I'd gone through here was gone. Primrose Pass and Pleroma's memories too, no doubt.
This wasn't the end.
Now it began. Nothing was over.
I wiped the blood from the retry aftereffects, then warped straight to Leo's room the moment I entered the inn.
Leo, fresh from training, sat in pajamas studying.
The clock showed midnight already.
“…?”
Leo started to smile at my sudden appearance, then coughed.
His face showed no clue about what would happen tomorrow afternoon. Obvious, but to me who'd just been there, even that felt alien.
“…Ahem... What's up? You haven't come around lately.”
“......”
The urgent voice from earlier was gone now.
Seeing his familiar face made my full return sink in.
Thinking that, I tossed my bag and perched on the corner of his desk. I'd considered sprawling on the bed like Elias, but conscience wouldn't let me lounge on someone else's in my outing clothes.
Sure enough, Leo eyed me like, what the hell is this guy doing, just from me on the desk.
“No chair. And do I need a reason to come?”
“No.”
I shook my head right after his answer.
“Yeah, I do have business. Leo, go up to my room right now, check it, and call the professor.”
When he just tilted his head, I continued.
“Long story. Not Elias or Narke this time. You have to step up.”
Leo frowned without a word and peeled off my mask.
“Hey, don't ignore me and—”
“Nosebleed?”
“......”
He noticed even with the mask on.
Sharp as ever.
“You know what I was doing. Used divine power non-stop at the station.”
But something felt off about him peeling off my mask without permission over a nosebleed.
I'm no parent of Leo's, don't have his reaction patterns mapped, but if he fussed that much over such things, he wouldn't roll people half to death in training.
Leo nodded just then.
“Yeah, got it. You came from the station, so recharge stamina first.”
As he spoke, he infused mana into my wrist.
[Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.]
Always effective.
Though I lacked the mental leeway for full healing right now.
I gave a quick thanks and turned.
“Thanks. Let's go up.”
“But, Lucas.”
Leo's voice came from behind.
“Where've you been?”